Southdown

I am a bit late to this because I have not significantly updated either of my MTBs in 15 years. Lately, I decided a new build 29er was the only way forward so I searched for an explanation of modern MTB geometry and found Lee's pages here. I checked my four bikes; one road race bike, one fixed gear 'track' bike (my goto road bike), a 2007 Ellsworth 26er FS and a 1999 S-Works XC race bike. All were already within 5mm of 'my' RAD without any adjustment and without ever having seen RAD before! Secondly, the more freeride the bike, the greater the RAAD angle, from my race bike, fixed gear, XC to FS. That made sense. Of course, the way my bikes achieved these numbers was the thing that did not fit modern thinking. Particularly, I had long wondered what sense the 11cm strem of my XC bike, or 9cm of my FS - with their wandering steering on steep climbs? Zero SHO would surely be the last piece of the puzzle! I quickly got the new 29er frame - a carbon hardtail - from its box to measure: Longer effective top tube - Check! Steeper seat tube angle - Check! RAD with short enough stem to achieve zero SHO? It does look like it. A bit sigh of relief! I am really looking forward to getting this new bike built up!